he served as u.s. ambassador to he served as u.s. ambassador to syria from 2001 to 2003, part of a 31-year career in the foreign service, most of it in the middle east. and ammar abdulhamid is a liberal democracy activist whose anti-regime activities led to his exile from syria in 2005. he now lives in the u.s. and writes the blog "syria revolution digest." welcome to both of you. the reports are, ammar is that this started with the arrest of some teenagers in the town, some anti-regime graffiti. it has clearly group. how has it group, what is involved now. >> what you have to realize is the seeds of this revolution has been planted years ago. what you are talking about syria with the arrest of the children, we are talking about the immediate cause. but people got an idea that the times were suitable for a revolution, finally, when of course tunisia was made and managed to topple their regime and egyptians and we saw immediately how the spark really, or the wave of protests took ever o the region. a lot of said finally. our time is n